


Whatever may come

by Leti1912



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, I made it a bit angsty, Light Angst, No beta reader we die like (wo)men, Pass it on, Ryan can actually sing but pretends not to to make her laugh, everyone is a little shit, opps my bad, peanut butter and jelly as confort food, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:35:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25846687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leti1912/pseuds/Leti1912
Summary: "What the hell are you doing here?""Saving your life, obviously.""No, I'm supposed to be in peace, ok? You are not peace, in fact, you're the opposite of peace, so where are we?""Come on, do the math!""It's not that simple, ok? There are freaky cyclones, and blinding lights, and you're here... oh my God... we're in Hell.""No such thing... I think."OrThe one where, while Hope might have inherited her father's impulsiveness and jumped head-first into a black pit with Ryan Clarke, but she also takes after her mother a bit too much.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson & Alaric Saltzman, Hope Mikaelson & Josie Saltzman & Lizzie Saltzman, Landon Kirby & Hope Mikaelson, Landon Kirby/Hope Mikaelson, Landon Kirby/Josie Saltzman, Ryan Clarke & Hope Mikaelson, Ryan Clarke/Hope Mikaelson
Comments: 33
Kudos: 66





	1. That's a stupid way to die

"So, what do you say, partners?"

He looks down at her with a cheeky little smile and raised eyebrows, but there's a raging fire burning in her eyes, and she just barely stops herself from yelling at him about all of this being his fault, even though she knows she is to blame.

"Pass," she doesn't even allow her shoulder to brush against him as she walks past him, too scared of feeling the same warmth and safety that had sipped into her bones when he'd held her minutes prior.

A part of her wants to leave him behind, and forget he ever existed, yet there's a little tug at her heart begging her not to let him go, reminding her that he was better than spending eternity alone in the darkness.

"You are such a child! No wonder you failed."

"Says the guy who's entire life has been about failing daddy," she spits venomously, twirling to glare at him, she knows it's a low blow, but then again, so was what he'd said, as if Hope blaming herself wasn't enough, "I don't trust you, okay? And I never will."

"I'm not asking you to," he hollers as she turns around again, and it gives her pause, just enough to egg him on, "look, we are both trapped in this place, and if you opened up the cell doors, who knows what else could be wandering around here? We want to get out, and I know how to kill the monsters my so-called-father has swallowed through the years, help me get out, and I'll help you when they come for you because we both know they will."

She stops walking and tries to take a deep breath, squeezes her fists so hard she can feel her nails break the skin on the palm of her hands. She feels light-headed too, doesn't know if it's due to the cyclone, the adrenaline, or the anger and frustration that threaten to overwhelm her, but she ignores it either way and looks at him over her shoulder. He is right, as much as she hates to admit it, and they both know it.

"Fine, but you better keep up, I'm not slowing down for you," he doesn't mention there's no real destination, and she doesn't either, but she will admit it's a bit frustrating when his long strides allow him to stay _right by her side_ no matter how fast she walks.

_________

They might have been walking for a day, or maybe a week, it's as if time stood still in the darkness, and she can't help but think of her friends, and her family, and Landon out there. Do they remember her? Do they feel like something's missing, or are they better off now that she's gone?

"When is your birthday?" Clarke asks, hands shoved deep in his pockets and boredom clear on his face.

"May second, and I think we're running out of interesting questions. Do you... have a middle name?"

"Yes, but why would I tell you when you don't use my first name?"

"Excuse me?"

"You call me by my last name all the time. Tell you what, if you can call me Ryan for an hour straight, I will tell you my middle name"

"Really Clarke?"

"Really Mikaelson"

_________

"Ryan?"

"What?"

"I think it's been over an hour"

"Fine... it's Nathan, and before you ask, yes, I piked it for myself back in the 1940s"

"..."

"What?"

"Nothing, it's a nice name"

_________

"Oh, the big bad Ryan Nathan Clarke has a sweet tooth!"

"For one, I'm not big and bad, and for the second, I absolutely do not"

"For one, you're a foot taller than me and have done morally questionable things, and for two, you basically just admitted to it"

"Well, so do you, so get off your high horse, Hope"

He doesn't say it with as much of a bite as she expected, and as they both chuckle she tries not to think about how close this feels to bonding.

She's definitely not bonding with Ryan, not at all. And calling him Ryan means nothing, it's only his first name.

_________

"How long do you think we've been here?"

"It's hard to say, a week? A month? A year? What difference does it make?"

"None, I guess; I just... wanted to know. Wait, what... is that noise?"

It sounds like the pitter-patter of wet feet, kind of reminiscent to the way in sounded when Hope's classmates would run around the pool with their flip plops on.

It took a second longer for them to see the creature running towards them, a strange mix between human and a turtle that almost reminded Hope of the ninja turtles from MG's comics. She was all but ready for battle when Ryan stepped in front of her and bowed, she wanted to yell at him, hit him upside the head for pulling such an idiotic move, but then she noticed the being had stopped running.

"It's a Kappa, they're obsessed with manners, if you bow, the will too..."

True to his word, the strange being bent at the waist as it to mimic Ryan, liquid falling from the oddly flat top of its head.

"And once the water falls from their head, they will not be able to move until you replace it with more water from the river it came from, useful, isn't it?" he asked, his smile a bit too cocky for her tastes.

"Well, that's a stupid way to die"

"It's technically not dead"

"Still"

_________

"What... was the last thing you dreamed before you dragged me into this little mission of yours?"

"We have definitely run out of interesting questions, haven't we? Magpies" she admits after a slightly-too-long silence, "four magpies pecking at my head, and I couldn't move, what about you?"

"I don't dream."

"You don't?"

"Never have, I have no need to sleep either."

"Really?"

"Really, one more thing to remind us all that I'm not human, a little trait my father forgot to add when he created me."

_________

"So... these weird cyclones, what are they?"

"I thought you would've asked sooner"

"Don't avoid the question"

"You are... toxic to him, he wants to spit you up as he did Seylah all those years ago."

"And every time he tries..."

"I grab hold of you so he'll spit me up too."

"But no matter how much he wants me out..."

"He wants to make me suffer more than that"

"We'll just have to find a way to make him want me out more than he wants you in," she resolved then. She could've left him behind, maybe she would've, a while ago, but now... she wasn't sure she could've forgiven herself if she did.

She remembered the Necromancer's mind too well, how she'd cried to him that no one should ever be alone like that; she wouldn't be the person that did that to Ryan now.

He appeared surprised too, his eyebrows raising comically as if he could've never even imagined her saying that.

"Hope, I..."

"Don't you dare go all mushy on me Ryan, it's not the moment. I'll just throw spells left and right until he has no choice but to spit us both up," she decided, "I haven't been able to feel my wolf side since we jumped in, so I'm assuming I can't turn in here,"

"And how do we make sure he takes me with you?"

"Binding spell, a pretty simple one, actually. _Corpus meum sequatur quocumque iero sit_ "

It felt almost like a rope had been tied from Hope's guts all the way to Ryan's, trying to uncomfortably tug them closer to each other. As the cyclone predictably appeared, Ryan's body followed Hope's, causing it to close back up.

"And now what?"

"Now we wait"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? Theories? Suggestions? There are two clues—maybe three, but one's pretty insignifican—tabout what's to come in future chapters, I'm going to sit back and enjoy watching if you can find them!


	2. Do you think Malivore can give you a cold?

"How much longer do you think it will be?" Ryan asked, laying flat on the floor, hands behind his head and knees bent up to make himself more comfortable.

"Not sure, I don't even know how long it's been, to be honest," she replies tiredly, sitting criss-cross applesauce by his side, elbows on her knees and her head resting on her hands.

"We've faced the Kappa, those annoying pixies, the sigbin..."

"I thought we'd agreed to never mention that one again," Hope complained, feeling her stomach churn at the mere thought of that wretched creature's smell. She'd had enough, vomiting right after they' killed it, and Ryan had just barely avoided the same fate through sheer willpower alone.

"Sorry, then there was the manananggal and that surprisingly slow troll, so I'd say it has either been a week, or it has felt like it was," he goes on, wincing sympathetically when he remembers the odd Filipino creature.

"What if I try bleeding?" she suggests, her voice far more bored and relaxed than Ryan thought it had the right to be when suggesting such a thing.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm toxic to him, right? Give your switchblade, I'll just cut my had and see if it does the trick, I'll heal either way, so it's fine," she insisted, straightening her posture for the first time in what felt like hours.

"Suit yourself, but if it doesn't work-" he starts, taking the small object out of his pocket. They'd used it against two of the creatures before, and as much as it wasn't the best weapon of choice, it was still better than nothing.

"Yeah, yeah, you'll get to say _'I told you so'_ now give it to me." she snapped, taking the small knife from his hand.

"The linking spell is still working, isn't it?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because this will be like rubbing salt in the wound, then, since you're slowly poisoning him with the spell already," he happily explained, the corners of his lips lifting into a smirk.

She almost wanted to smile back; she'd found herself doing that a lot lately, smiling when he did and laughing at his jokes. _Maybe_ , she thought, _when you spend enough time with someone on a situation as desperate as the current one, you end up bonding no matter how hard you try not to._

_________

It hadn't worked, because _of course_ things hadn't gone their way—did they ever?—so there they were yet again, an unknown amount of time later, both lying on their backs, a bit of blood barely noticeable on Hope's dark shirt where she'd whipped her hand earlier.

"Do you think you can get a cold while in this place?"

"Probably not, judging by the fact that we haven't needed to eat, drink or sleep either, why?"

"I've had a stuffy nose for a while, do you think Malivore can give you a cold?"

"Well, if he could provoke a sickness in you, he would've done it to me too, so I'd have to go with no on that one too, and unless you have any more symptoms, I'm thinking it's probably nothing."

"My back and my legs are killing me, but that's probably because we keep walking around aimlessly."

"Probably..." he concedes, ignoring the strange feeling in the back of his brain, almost like the itch of a repressed thought.

_________

"Wait, we jumped into the pit in... mid to late April, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"It feels like it's been over a month, you know what that means?" his smile was cheeky and his eyes were sparkling, and she wasn't sure she'd like his answer. He looked a bit like a scheming cartoon character, and she felt a bit like Tweety staring at Silvester from inside an open cage.

"I'm... not sure I know what you mean, no."

"You are more than likely past your birthday now, how many was it this year, huh? Seventeen? Eighteen?"

"Eighteen, yeah. Happy birthday to me, I guess," she conceded, but his face was still a bit-

" _Beauty queen of only eighteen she had some trouble with herself..._ " he belted out, he appeared to find it unusually funny, and while she was a bit annoyed at his suddenly loud voice due to the slight headache she'd had for a while, she found herself fighting a smile.

"Shut up! I don't even like that song!"

"Oh, I most definitely do not intend to do that."

_________

" _Eighteen, crazy, pulled up in your daddy's car-_ "

" _Silencio_!"

He'd been singing eighteen-themed songs for what felt like forever, would stop for around an hour before he'd remember another one, and she was more aware each time of the fact that she was fighting a losing battle by trying not to laugh.

The complete isolation—outside of each other, of course—must have been driving them insane, mostly him, as it appeared.

Then again, maybe he'd always been a sort of funny guy, she just... had never had the chance to notice.

The cyclone appeared again, and she waited for it to close as it had so many times already, her feet lost contact with the floor, and she could see Ryan following suit out of the corner of her eye.

One heartbeat, then two, and she kept going up, faster by the second, until she felt her back collide against something wet and soft and it was still dark as hell, but somehow lighter than it had been.

Up was down and nothing made sense for a second, and then she realized the thing tickling the back of her neck was grass, and she rolled onto her stomach, laying her head on her bent arms and laughing in relief.

"What is so funny, sweetheart?" He manages to sound both like a grumpy child and an incredibly relieved man at the same time, and she turns her head, still laying on her stomach on a patch of grass in the woods, and looks at him with laughter in her lips and tears in her eyes.

"He was so done with your shit he spit us out."

They're lying in the middle of the woods, clothes tattered and ripped from fighting, tears in their eyes and laughter fluttering around them, and she absolutely does not want to think about the fact that, right at that moment, it doesn't seem to matter much how everything could've changed because, whatever comes, she knows she won't face it alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got excited because I had a comment, and that fueled me to write another chapter, so here you guys go!  
> Special thanks to Ribizzla, for her kindness and love for the story, and for being the first-ever comment!  
> Again, let me know your thoughts, theories, suggestions, etc.  
> A bit of a big reveal is on the horizon, and I'd like to see if you can figure it out (there are a couple more itty-bitty clues on this chapter) and here goes the biggest clue I'm probably going to give until you find out in either the next chapter or the one after that: this story deviated slightly from canon a lot earlier than I've made it look up to this point!


	3. Do you know your headmaster's bank account password too?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No matter how many times I edited it, I was still never satisfied, so I drank a shit ton of iced tea and sugar-high me yeeted this chapter into the void either way. Hope you enjoy!

Ryan almost expected more cars to be on the road, as Hope chose to dramatically walk down the middle of it instead of off to the side, the way any normal person would. He still had no idea how long they'd been trapped in the pit, but judging by how little everything seemed to have changed, it couldn't have been that long.

Hope was a woman on a mission though, clearly walking with a purpose towards the school that had been her home, and he found himself hoping everything would be as she'd left it.

"You might be the almighty tribrid, but could you please not walk down the middle of the road? It's ticking me off," he called, in an effort to break a silence that seemed heavier by the second, "You look like a character from a post-apocalyptic movie, let's not jinx this whole thing, sweetheart" he tried to joke.

"You think where I walk is going to affect the outcome of this?" she questioned with a snort, making her way to the side of the road absentmindedly, coming to walk by his side. Again, his longer strides kept him right next to Hope even though she was walking so fast she was almost on the verge of jogging.

"It will if you get run over by a car, like that one!" she joked, signing towards the coming vehicle as he tried to ease her nerves. He had tried to pretend he didn't care about her for a while back when they'd been in the pit, but he guessed people were right when they said adversity makes strange bedfellows. Not that they were bedfellows, but...

"Oh... that's Dorian's car," she muttered brokenly as he pulled her away from the human's sight. A few days, or weeks, or maybe months ago, he would've likely been one of the people she trusted the most, someone she would've gone to for help, but now...

Maybe it was for the best that he'd pulled her away, he thought, he didn't want to see the broken look in her eyes when she had to face the fact that those she cared about didn't even remember she'd ever existed, or at least he wanted to stall that moment of realization for as long as he could. He couldn't truly explain the reason, but he didn't want to see the fiery light on her baby blue eyes go dim because of the pain and the heartbreak.

As soon as the car had passed them, she rushed towards the doors, confidently entering the code that opened them with a soft whirl.

"Of course you have the code, do you know your headmaster's bank account password too? Listen, maybe we should... set up camp somewhere before venturing off into a school filled with supernaturals that might just attack us on sight and..."

"My family has a mansion in town, not too far from here, so we can stay there, and..." she seemed doubtful for a second, and he could see a bit of hope glimmering in her eyes. Of course, she'd think someone could remember, it was going to be more painful for her than he'd thought, then, "Landon was dead when we jumped in, and he's Malivore's son and... maybe one of those things made a loophole, maybe he remembers us?"

He knew she wasn't talking about him at all when she said 'us', but he still found himself hoping she was right. Maybe she wouldn't have to ever find out what it felt like to be nobody to the people that used to matter the most to you, "You really honor your own name, huh?" he questioned, earning a small sad smile that mirrored his, "Do lead the way, sweetheart."

It took him a while to realize where they were heading, the sounds of the old slasher movie too faint for his pretty much human ears at first. The silhouette of his brother's messy mop of curls against a white sheet was the first thing he saw as they emerged from the trees, and he almost wanted to snort. Really? A movie projected on a sheet? Which old movie had he stolen that idea from?

He almost expected the auburn-haired girl standing right in front of him to run towards his pathetic excuse of a brother, leaving him behind; he was used to it by now, or so he thought, but he knew it'd sting either way. She didn't, though, froze on her place at the sight of a dark-haired girl making her way towards Landon and... kissing him?

He almost wants to march up to them and... maybe punch his brother? He's not sure, and he doesn't really know why, but then he sees the moonlight reflecting off Hope's tears and changes his mind, standing between her and the pair in an effort to keep her from seeing any more than she already has. His hands went to her shoulders and he almost expected her to shake them off, but it never happened.

"Hope, hey, it's..." it wasn't okay, was it? And it wasn't going to be for a while, and he decided he wouldn't lie to her again at some point while they walked aimlessly around the pit, "I'm here, ok? You are not alone, maybe they forgot, but we remember, and we'll find a way to make them do it too," his dark eyes bore into her light ones, and he didn't know where the sudden bout of confidence had come from, but if someone could find a way to negate her father's abilities, it was them.

She seemed shaken to the bone as he gently led her away from the traitorous duo, one of his hands on her upper back the entire time, half to comfort her, half to convince himself the only person in the world that cared even a little bit about him wasn't going to turn into smoke never to be seen again.

_________

Being surrounded by things that reminded her of her family was oddly soothing, even as pain nagged at her heart and threatened to eat her alive.

She closed her eyes for a second and sniffed as she heard Ryan moving around in the kitchen; she'd asked him to leave her alone for a while, and he'd left a lot more hesitantly than she'd expected. She'd talked to the fake Landon, and it hadn't answered all the questions she'd hoped it would, but it had helped.

She dried her tears with the sleeve of her jacket and left the small study she'd holed up in to avoid being seen as big fat tears rolled down her face. That was new too, hiding out of habit more than out of necessity since Ryan had already seen her at her lowest before. Maybe they were more than partners, after all, maybe this was what it felt like to consciously make a friend.

"Well, this is no fancy dinner," the man in question admitted as she walked into the enormous kitchen, "but it's the best the local 7-Eleven had to offer," he joked with a small smile, offering a plate to her. It looked like he'd made two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for each of them, and she smiled softly.

It reminded her a bit of her mother, and how she'd make snacks for her when she was just a little girl, "Thanks, Ryan."

"Oh, and I figured out we were in the pit for around three months, do you know what that means?"

"I... don't think so?"

" _Tonight can we just hold on to those eighteen years, those eighteen years yeah..._ " he belted out. He seemed hell-bent on cheering her up, or his own version of it, and for the first time since he'd started his little self-made playlist, she gave in and laughed.

The sandwiches had too much jelly and not enough peanut butter, and she could still feel the trails the tears had left on her face, but he looked proud as a fifth-grader who'd just won the local science fair, and she was laughing freely despite the pain, and maybe, everything they'd been through was worth it for the little moments of happiness they kept squeezing in somehow. 


	4. The fuck did Malivore do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took this long <3
> 
> Also, I can shamelessly admit I'm having a bit too much fun with the cliffhanger, not going to lie. Als always, share your thoughts, theories, jokes or whatever you want, and have a nice day!

"Alright so, you're telling me, whatever did this is really big, and has superhuman strength."

"Exactly."

"And that's it?"

"Well... yes."

"That barely narrows it down, you know that, right?" he asks with an annoyed sigh, pointing towards the overturned bus.

"I'm aware Ryan, but that's all we know," she answers, rolling her eyes before tearing a piece off the croissant he'd gotten her on the way. He'd gotten one for himself too, but he was apparently as much of a bottomless pit as his father when it came to food. She wasn't sure she'd ever seen anyone eat so fast before.

"Let's track the asshole down,"

_________

It was almost comforting, really, the familiarity of just walking in silence, knowing Ryan was right behind her, except this time they were surrounded by trees and dry leaves, instead of an endless pit of darkness and oblivion.

The purple substance on the fallen tree trunk was definitely out of place, though, and its putrid smell soon reached their noses as they bent over to examine it, Ryan's nose scrunching up in disgust while Hope narrowly avoided gagging.

"Wow, that's..."

"Pungent," he finished for her, hand comfortingly on her upper back, as they followed the dark-colored droplets straight towards... the local high-school.

Just their luck.

_________

"Isn't it a bit too early to be sneaking into the janitor's closet?"

They both startled simultaneously, and Hope blushed a bit at the realization of what he must have been thinking; Ryan seemed to have no idea, though, if his confused frown was anything to go by.

"Early for wh-"

"We were looking for the principal's office!" she interrupted her companion swiftly, feeling almost as if she were shielding little Pedro from a dirty joke he didn't really understand told by the upperclassmen.

"Well, you guys are lucky then, I'm new too, but I'm pretty sure that's him right behind you."

"Well, I'll be f-" Hope cut Ryan off with a not-so-subtle and pretty painful looking elbow to the ribs as Alaric freaking Saltzman came to stand in front of them, not an ounce of recognition to be found in his eyes.

_________

"You are a blank slate, Miss Hope... Marshall" Mr. Saltzman stated, with something akin to humor in his eyes that Ryan didn't really understand. He proceeded to prattle on the—very much incorrect—information Hope had quickly scribbled down on the paper, "No transcripts from your last school and... they sent you here with a... babysitter?"

"As she said, they were probably misplaced during the move," Ryan quickly intervened, trying to save Hope the effort and pain of lying to her former mentor in the face.

"Yeah, well, if you're gonna stay around, you're gonna have to go to school, and unless your friend here just so happens to look a bit older than he is, he should probably leave."

"Yeah, um... can we go now?"

"You know, I have two daughters," the older man stated, and for a second Ryan failed to see the relevance of his statement, "I know when they're not telling me something, so if there's anything going on at home or... if you're in trouble and need to talk, just know I'm here to talk, ok?" he looked at the curly-haired man out of the corner of his eye as he said it, and only then did it strike Ryan how odd they must've looked.

"I'm fine, I got Ryan for that" she answered, and he could hear her voice break slightly, making him wish he could chase the sadness away, but he couldn't, so he chased off after her instead.

_________

"Hey, I can't... I can't go in there, okay?" she heard him fret through the bathroom door, and it was so reassuring to know that someone still cared, still remembered, that she almost felt like crying, even if that someone was Ryan, "But it's okay, take your time, I'll be here."

She barely managed to take a couple of deep breaths before she realized she wasn't alone in the bathroom, and a dark-haired tall girl was looking at her with more sympathy than she would've expected, and asking her if she was crying because of a boy.

"Yeah, he's kind of a troll. Ryan tries to help but..."

"Oh my God, say no more," the girl cut her off, looking as if she'd heard the same story a hundred times and had just the solution up her sleeve, "We'll fix you up and make him jealous!" she claimed, as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe.

She explained her idea confidently, and it almost reminded the shorter girl of Lizzie, but she pushed the idea away when she realized it was only making her even more emotional.

"Maya"

"Hope... Thank you," she reciprocated, only a little suspicious.

"Hope, you okay? I really don't want to get in there, but people are starting to look at me like I'm a weirdo," Ryan whisper-yelled from the door, and she couldn't really avoid the snort that escaped her at that, while Maya simply raised her eyebrow in surprise.

_________

"I think I've never been this happy about the fact that I never went through puberty," he tells her, nose scrunched up in disgust as he follows her around the locker room.

"It did suck," she conceded, memories of mood-swings and pimples coming to mind, "you lucky bastard," she chuckled.

"Oh, here here, little troll," the curly-haired man called as they both noticed the purple droplets, almost as if trying to lure in a kitten, "We got a gift for you..."

He could see a hand grab onto Hope's shoulder, and before he could even blink —not that he even tried, too startled to do that—they have the principal on the floor, her fist raised as if ready to punch him while his switchblade was just a couple inches away from the other man's neck, in case he tried anything funny. He must've gotten so used to working as a team with her that it had become almost second nature, he mused.

"I'm a vampire hunter," hope confidently bullshitted, as her old mentor complained about his impending backache, much to Ryan's amusement, "And Ryan's my... assistant," she stated, though the last word came off as more of a question as she looked at him over her shoulder.

"The Jarvis to your Iron Man? I'll take it," he shrugged. He'd always liked Jarvis, mostly in the comics, but the movie version was quite nice too.

No matter what they said though, or how confident Hope tried to look, the older man seems to doubt them. It took Ryan a minute to see through it; he didn't really doubt their words but held a sense of self-importance, a belief that he could take on any creature by himself, mixed with an unwillingness to put who he saw as a kid in danger. He couldn't help but agree with half of the thought process, but he knew no one would be able to talk Hope away from going after a monster, so trying to help her was not only the best but the only option when it came down to it.

"We'd love to have you try for the team," he all but yells as a gaggle of male teenagers floods into the room, "All are welcome, but in the meantime, just got to class and stay there," he insists, his double meaning clear as water, "And also, send your friend home," he adds, as a bit of an afterthought. 

She absolutely roasted the boy who'd caught them looking for the troll earlier on their way out, and he could swear the entire day and all of the headmaster's subtle digs were worth it at that very moment.

_________

He couldn't help but be thankful he'd thought about getting them both phones just in case, thanking his lucky stars yet again that, while everyone had forgotten them, paper trails still existed and his bank account had been right there waiting for him to be spit back up.

She'd sent him a couple of texts while she was supposed to be at class with some ingredients she would need, and as soon as she'd exited the building for lunch period, he'd used his height to her advantage, hiding slightly behind him as she mixed them all up and closed the lid of the mason jar, the pretty blue liquid shimmering inside it as she shook it.

Of course, Doctor Saltzman had been trying to beat the thing all by himself as they arrived, but Hope's plan had been pretty seamless as she managed to stun the green creature while the sandy-haired man's back collided with the floor for a second time that day. Him throwing her arrow had been unexpected, a sort of deeply ingrained muscle memory if Ryan had to make a guess, but still had helped greatly.

He hadn't like the thought of leaving Hope alone with Dr, Saltman and that MG boy he'd been told about, weary of her facing her past and the fact that they might've moved on by herself, but she'd made it a point to ask him to get her lunch from the nearby grill, to which he'd complied.

  
"Hey, I got you extra fries," he announced walking through the door, realizing the principal had been asking about the existence of her fictional parents, as he went to stand protectively by her side, glaring at the older man over her head as if daring him to continue.

Apparently, Ryan's glare was just good enough to persuade him into not doing so, as he dismissively told him they'd be back after school hours to clean up the monumental corpse they'd left behind.

"Hey, you gonna share some fries, or do I have to beg?" he asked as they walked away from the office, eliciting a chuckle from the younger girl. If only making her happy ere truly that easy, he thought.

_________

Hope appreciated Ryan's presence behind her as Alaric grilled her for answers, reassuring while letting her take control of what she wanted to say, hovering slightly as if ready to kick Doctor Saltzman in the shins the second he felt like she needed it. It felt a bit like that weighted blanked she used to own, oddly comforting and warm, but she tried to think too much about it.

"Well, that's just fucking convenient, isn't it?" Ryan complained, the purple puddle and lack of corpse making it clear it had been, in fact, not a troll.

It might've been the smell, or the nerves, or the knowledge that they had failed yet again, she wasn't quite sure, but she soon found herself leaning her hands against the nearest wall as the burger made its way back out of her through the same path it had used to go in. She somehow managed to void puking on her own shoes and was just barely aware of Ryan trying to hold her up as her knees gave out, while Alaric held her hair and rubbed her back, the way he probably was used to doing when the twins got sick.

"There, there. Let it out, it's okay, better out than in, there you go," the older man reassured her patiently, while could pretty much feel the anxiety oozing off of Ryan.

"Memories are gone but paper trails are there Hope, we could go to the doctors or..."

"Never been to a doctor's office, no paper trail there," she choked out, trying her best to take deep breaths. The werewolf healing and vampire blood sure came in handy against stomach bugs and pretty much every other childhood-typical illnesses.

"The fuck did Malivore do, then?" he asked, knowing there was no real answer, "because this sure as hell isn't a cold."

"We'll figure it out," she stated, pulling herself back together and lightly pushing the hovering males away from her, "But first, monster duty."

_________

"Okay so, if it's not a troll, what else could it be?"

"Only thing that comes to mind is him sending us the only Cyclops with a fringe in the history of the supernatural," the younger, taller male states as they followed yet another set of pungent purple droplets around town.

"Well, whatever it is, it's around here, somewhere. The question is why," the older man ponders as he glares off into the streets.

"Not sure, I mean, the pattern is we wound it, and then it runs and hides from us. So he must be sticking to the shadows, waiting for it to get dark."

"When the monster came last time they were always after something, so we gotta figure out what he's looking for."

"Well, it runs from us," Ryan cuts in trying to reassure Hope, "so he's not after you. What else did Malivore consistently go after?" he asked, his eyes boring into hers for a second before they both notice Landon and the brunette girl crossing the street in front of them.

He had never liked Landon before, but he had never wanted to punch him as badly as he did at that time, and he wasn't sure how he felt about it. A strange thing, really.

_________

"That oblivious prat," she hears Ryan mutter behind her as she flips the troll away from an admittedly oblivious Landon. Just how loud is his music?

Ryan was no good at fighting, as they'd figured out on the pit, but he did take hits like a champ and was fast on his feet, probably because the hits never hurt him for too long and couldn't kill him at all, she guessed, so he'd developed a tendency to play backup and distraction for whatever was after them as needed, which was exactly what he did at that moment.

"Hey, you jolly green giant," he yelled, pretty much running laps around the creature, "My friend here's gonna burn your fringe off to see how many ugly eyes you have," he taunted, managing to stab the thing's Achilles heel as Hope did just that, sadly getting distracted enough by it for the creature to whack him away with a grunt. "Go for the eye!" he yelled as he soared through the town square and lading on his back, looking almost like a cartoon character.

It was Doctor Saltzman who released the arrow right into its swollen blue eye instead of Hope, much to her surprise and relief, as its body disintegrated into little ambers fluttering up into the night sky while Ryan made his way back towards them, "Well, that saves up the cleanup," he joked.

She didn't hear him, not really, captivated as she was on Landon's green-grey eyes as they locked onto hers for the first time in months. Love and pain and grief overwhelmed her as she turned around, her heart breaking a bit more with each step she took away from him, away from her past. That was it, she thought, she just had to accept nothing would ever be the same, and then she'd be okay, eventually.

She just wanted to go back to reach the edge of town and shift into her wolf form, run around the woods until she felt like she could face the world again. 

_________

She shifted the cristal between her hands with misty eyes as she waited for Ryan to come back, duffle bag at her feet as she begged to be wrong about what exactly was going on. She'd sent him off with a short list of ingredients written on a yellow post-it note and no idea what she planned to do with them, and she almost hoped she'd never have to explain it.

"Hey," a painfully familiar voice called from behind her, "We saw each other earlier, right?"

"Yeah, I was just... on a walk to clear my head," she answered hesitantly. He hated lies, a small voice in her head insisted, she shouldn't lie to him, shouldn't have to, but there they were, talking like strangers after everything they'd been through.

"Rought night?"

"Yeah, actually. Relationship trouble," she tried to summarize, as simple and close to the truth as she could be.

"Must be contagious," he jokes with a grin, and she can feel her heart breaking just a little bit more at his words.

"You too?"

"Yeah, I'm with this really amazing girl, but all of a sudden everything's super complicated. You?"

"Oh, um... Old story, I guess. Fell for a guy who doesn't even know I exist," she choked out, trying to keep the tears in. He didn't need to see that.

"Classic," he conceded with a chuckle, completely unaware that she was talking about him, "She is really great," he insisted, "I just feel like I want it to be perfect and... I want to be the perfect boyfriend," you were she thought, "and she's trying to be the perfect girlfriend, and it was really effortless, but now it feels so... off? I don't know. Sorry"

"No uhh... you know, a very smart boy one taught me that sometimes you have to be brave enough to be imperfect with people, even if it's scary," a tear comes out when she thinks about them, about just how imperfect they were sometimes and what Ryan was probably carrying back to her on a plastic bag by now.

"Of course, you're gonna have to take your own advice until that boy hears that you exist," he advises her, "but I think he knows," he smiles softly, as he motions behind her, making her turn around in time to see Ryan pretty much jog in their direction.

"Oh, I don't know about that," she dismissed his comment, not nearly as outraged about what he thought as she would've been a few months ago. Maybe it was better if he thought she was off with someone else, it wasn't as if wanted her back or ever would.

He got up and left just as Ryan managed to reach her, worry clear on his face as he carefully dropped the herb-filled bag next to her


End file.
